Rules & Terms for Creative Talent Working with Earthbound Comics

Teams Vs. Individuals – Earthbound Comics makes a distinction between teams and individuals. An INDIVIDUAL is part of a creative team or teams assembled by Earthbound for various projects. A TEAM is a creative team that submits work to Earthbound as a team, represented by ONE person with whom Earthbound will communicate, deal with, etc. Team representatives are responsible for making their members aware of Earthbound’s rules and regulations before entering the agreement. Earthbound’s responsibility to teams is ONLY with their representative, and not to other team members. Individuals and teams will be referred to as “creators”.

Compensation and Sales – Earthbound will provide creators one or more “comp” copies of books that they have worked on. If you represent a team, you may request a copy for each credited member. Additionally creators can purchase copies of books they’ve participated from Earthbound at cost plus shipping expenses. Creators may sell these books in any manner they see fit, including at conventions/shows, or online. Creators are also entitled to future Earthbound publications their creations may end up in at cost as well. This is the creator’s COMPENSATION PRIVILEGE.

Please note the following restriction: Creators MAY NOT sell Earthbound Comics online for less than the cover price, as our primary source of sales is online, and this would undercut our sales. If a creator fails to comply with this restriction, Earthbound will revoke the compensation privilege. Earthbound reserves the right to revoke the compensation privilege AT WILL if we feel it has been used irresponsibly, or in a way that is detrimental to Earthbound Comics.

Profits from sales made by Earthbound belong only to Earthbound. Creators are not entitled to any portion of these profits in any form or manner, including royalties.

Licensing – By submitting work (artworks, stories, lettering, or any other components of a comic) for use by Earthbound, the creator is licensing Earthbound to use this indefinitely into the future, including separate publications and promotional materials, even if compensation privileges are revoked for any reason.

Creator Rights – Earthbound is a firm believer in creator rights! But when you work with other people, things get tricky, so we’ve laid some ground rules:

Unless otherwise agreed upon, creators remain the sole 100% owners of their creations, and may use them anywhere else, for any other purpose as they please AS ALLOWED BY COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK LAW. Artists may want to note, that while they own their artwork, originals, and reproduction rights outside of Earthbound, their artwork may contain intellectual properties (stories, characters, ideas, etc.) that require the permission of the LEGAL OWNER of said properties to use in any fashion other than advertisement for the sale of original artwork, or portfolios. This may also apply to writers and other types of creators in certain situations. Please respect the law.

Completed comics as assembled and published by Earthbound, become the intellectual property of Earthbound Comics, and, as such, would require a separate agreement in order to be published elsewhere as they appear in Earthbound publications. For example, a creator who only wrote a story is not entitled to the reproduction rights for the completed story with art, lettering, color, etc.

Earthbound reserves the right to reasonably use any licensed material for promotional purposes. Some examples of reasonable use would be advertisements, posters, flyers, or promotional videos.

Creator ownership MAY be preempted by a separate agreement which states different terms of ownership than those outlined here. In such a case, the ownership outlined in that agreement must be followed.

Creators are responsible for the legal integrity of their work. Earthbound accepts NO responsibility for anything submitted unlawfully including, but not limited to, copyrighted/trademarked material, illegally obtained artwork or misrepresented work in any form. Further, Earthbound is not responsible for determining whether or not a creator’s work is legally sound. Any legal action specific to a creator’s work will be directed to the creator.

Earthbound’s Editorial Prerogative – While we respect, promote, and encourage the visions of our creators, Earthbound has the final say on all editorial decisions, and reserves the right request changes to be made prior to publication. Earthbound will not publish anything that we do not feel properly represents our brand.

Contact Information – It is the creator’s responsibility to make sure Earthbound has current and working contact information. Earthbound will not be held responsible for any compensation lost or missed because due to incorrect or out of date contact information.

Creator Behavior – Earthbound reserves the right to end any standing agreement, privilege, or association with creators at will, if Earthbound deems their behavior detrimental to Earthbound Comics. Examples of such behavior are, but are not limited to, flakiness, poor or negative representation of the Earthbound brand, harassment of any sort, and insubordination.

Failure to comply with any of these stipulations will result in loss of compensation privileges and possible legal action.

If you have any further questions or concerns about the terms, please contact Ben Ferrari.